Buckenham Castle

Buckenham Castle lies west of the village of New Buckenham, in the county of Norfolk in England.

Buckenham Castle was probably built somewhere around 1140, in the early part of the reign of King Stephen, by the Anglo-Norman, Aubigny family. It replaced an earlier castle they had built some 2 miles to the northwest and on which site the Old Buckenham Priory was built around 1146.

Probably somewhere in the beginning of the 15th century the castle was inherited by the Knyvet family from Southwick, Northhamptonshire. They then moved to their new possession and by 1465 the castle was home to Sir John Knyvet. 

Buckenham Castle was finally demolished in 1649 by the owner Sir Philip Knyvet, probably on the orders of Parliament after the end of the Civil War. This demolition left just the circular moat with matching earth ramparts and the flint foundations of the circular keep. The keep had walls of 3 meters thick, was 18 meters in diameter and may have been up to 12 meters high. The inner bailey would have had 2 outer baileys.

At present the site of Buckenham Castle is private property and can not be visited. Although I read that the gate key could be acquired at the village shop on King Street in the village. A nice secluded and kinda forgotten site.

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